Brazilian law requires that treatment for breast cancer begin within 60 days of diagnosis. This waiting time is an indicator of accessibility to health services. The aim of this study was to analyze which factors are associated with waiting times between diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer in women in Brazil between 1998 and 2012. Information from Brazilian women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1998 and 2012 was collected through the Hospital Registry of Cancer (HRC), developed by the National Cancer Institute (INCA). We performed a secondary data analysis, and found that the majority of women (81.3%) waited for ≤60 days to start treatment after being diagnosed. Those referred by the public health system, aged ≥50 years, of nonwhite race, diagnosed at stage I or II, and with low levels of education waited longer for treatment to start. We observed that only 18.7% experienced a delay in starting treatment, which is a positive reflection of the quality of the care network for the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. We also observed inequalities in access to health services related to age, region of residence, stage of the disease, race, and origin of referral to the health service.

中文翻译：

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巴西女性在乳腺癌诊断和治疗之间的等待时间：1998年至2012年的病例分析。

巴西法律要求在诊断后60天内开始治疗乳腺癌。该等待时间是获得卫生服务的指标。这项研究的目的是分析在1998年至2012年间巴西女性的乳腺癌诊断和治疗等待时间与哪些因素相关。1998年至2012年之间，巴西女性被诊断出患有乳腺癌。国家癌症研究所（INCA）开发的癌症（HRC）。我们进行了二次数据分析，发现大多数女性（81.3％）在被诊断后等待≤60天开始治疗。由公共卫生系统转介的，年龄≥50岁，非白人种族，在I或II期被诊断出且受教育程度较低的人等待更长的时间才能开始治疗。我们观察到只有18.7％的患者开始治疗延迟，这积极反映了诊断和治疗乳腺癌的护理网络的质量。我们还观察到与年龄，居住地区，疾病阶段，种族和转介医疗服务来源有关的医疗服务获取不平等。